Latest Snow Leopard build resurrects Atom compatibility

Development build 10C535 of Snow Leopard update 10.6.2 retains Intel Atom support after the previous build had killed compatibility with the processor.

According to the developer blog which initially told of the Atom incompatibility, the latest build of OS X 10.6.2 does retain support for Atom chips. It was previously reported that support for the Intel chip had been dropped, a move that many believed was Apple's attempt to stop the small but burgeoning "Hackintosh" netbook community. This all may change when the final 10.6.2 build is released, but as of now Atom support has returned.

Intel's Atom processor is a low-power, low-cost chip which is intended for notebooks and ultra-mobile PCs. No current Apple products use the chip, but a community has formed around installing Snow Leopard on so called "Hackintosh" netbook PCs which use the Atom processor. This unauthorized use of Apple's operating system has grown in popularity since the release of small, inexpensive notebooks such as the Dell Mini 10v, which allowed for easy installs of OS X.

Last year, it was reported that an executive at Intel had publicly vouched for the Atom processor to be used in Apple's tablet. With the buyout of chip designer P.A. Semi, many believe that Apple is instead designing its own chips for the platform.

Maybe it was just a bug? Incomplete work? Details in that blog post on exactly what broke and why are practically nonexistent. Developer seeds aren't the final word anyway. It sounds like something in the software was refactored and the work wasn't finished.

I don't think it matters what you're running, hackintosh or not, you should do a backup before doing any updates. Updates change system files, you never know if the software encounters an unexpected condition or there is some kind of power loss or data hiccup in the computer.

Even if it was intentional, I suspect Apple realized that anything they could do, the Hackintosh community can undo (with time). They're already in an arms race with regards to iPhone jailbreaking. They don't need to open another front. It just eats up limited programming resources that would be better used stomping bugs and improving features.

Even if it was intentional, I suspect Apple realized that anything they could do, the Hackintosh community can undo (with time). They're already in an arms race with regards to iPhone jailbreaking. They don't need to open another front. It just eats up limited programming resources that would be better used stomping bugs and improving features.

I doubt it had anything to do with Apple feeling pressure from the hackintosh community or anything like that.

It was either a bug that happened to also break other things and was corrected or there was just a little too much bad press on the subject and Apple figured the effort wasn't worth it.

What bad press? Bad press about Apple making it more difficult for infringers to install OS X on unauthorized hardware?? The bulk of Apple's market doesn't even know what hackintoshes are and wouldn't give a sweet damn even if they did.

The Atom issue had nothing to do with the hackintosh community - that is actually a minority of the minority Mac fan community on the ass end of the web.

The first part of your post was dollars-to-donuts closer to the truth: it was a bug.

I doubt it had anything to do with Apple feeling pressure from the hackintosh community or anything like that.

I never said there was pressure. But why waste limited resources trying to kill a small segment of the illicit market, especially when there's a good chance it could be undone? It's not like jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones, which a ton of people would do if Apple didn't keep fighting against it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

The Atom issue had nothing to do with the hackintosh community - that is actually a minority of the minority Mac fan community on the ass end of the web.

Yeah, we get it. You don't like Hackintoshes. But you're also awfully ignorant about them. At any given moment, there are hundreds of people on any of several torrents of OSX86 bootloaders and hacked Snow Leopard installs. Thousands more on the various forums dedicated to the craft. I'd even venture to say a lot of these people know a lot more about their systems than you, me or other "average" Mac owners. Some of their instructions with detailed Terminal commands leave me stumped, and I do a lot of support for Mac-owning friends and family.

By the way, have you ever wondered what the "multi-quote" button is for?

Technically speaking, the update never actually "killed" Atom support. At worst, atom users would simply have to revert to an older or patched kernel to get back up an running, something that many hackintoshes, especially AMD, have to do anyway. There was never really any cause for so much fuss.

Anyway, I remember reading buried reports of people with legitimate macs having issues with that last build, so it was most likely just a bug in the kernel. Squashed, and now the sensational story can rest for now.